Conservatives consider extending gun licences to 10 years, study proposals to loosen gun control law

Waterloo Region Record

OTTAWA — The federal Conservatives are considering sweeping recommendations from an influential government firearms advisory committee to loosen Canada’s gun control laws, according to the Toronto Star.

According to documents released under the access to information law, the proposed changes would touch on many of the remaining restrictions on firearms and critics say would pose a risk to public safety.

The proposals include getting rid of the “prohibited” category of firearms and reclassifying weapons such as certain handguns or assault weapons like AK-47s as “restricted” only, and extending the duration of owner licenses from five to 10 years — a move the RCMP warns would strip away an important safety check.

On the 23rd anniversary of the Polytechnique massacre of 14 women, one of its survivors is aghast at the ideas proposed by the committee and fearful of its influence and power in Ottawa.

“I am very sad. And I am mad,” said Nathalie Provost, who was wounded in Marc Lepine’s fusillade against female engineering students on Dec. 6, 1989. Parliament has declared the anniversary a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, and yet Provost fears any lessons learned have been forgotten.

“I have the feeling with all of this that we are losing more than just the long-gun registry, we are losing total control of guns in Canada,” Provost said in an interview from Montreal.

A summary of the recommendations as well as a record of a meeting where they were pitched to the government are among documents released to researchers for the Coalition for Gun Control.

Co-chaired by Steve Torino of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee met with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and other senior government officials in Ottawa in late March, after the bill to kill the long-gun registry had cleared the Commons and was on the verge of Senate approval.

The 12 committee members also called for the removal of the requirement on gun owners to get an “authorization to transport” firearms, and for the creation of a new technical advisory committee to advise on how imports should be classified or on weapons reclassifications — but said it should be made up mostly of advisers from industry, with two from government.

They recommend seized firearms — which by law must now be destroyed — be made legally available for public sale or trade. They suggest a “prohibited persons registry” could be set up to aid the tracking of those who should not be allowed to possess guns, but otherwise prohibited weapons should be reclassified.

Firearms licences should be valid for at least 10 years “or longer,” said the committee, and “if a licence expires, it should go into suspension until renewed, removing the criminalization of the firearm possessor.”

Toews’ office confirmed to the Star Wednesday that he is actively considering the recommendations, particularly a licence of longer duration.

“We always consider common sense solutions to ensure we have effective firearms laws that keep people safe, without needlessly burdening law abiding Canadians. We are looking at ways to ensure the licensing system is efficient and effective,” said Toews’ communications director Julie Carmichael.

The RCMP refused a request for comment or technical information Wednesday, deferring to the department of public safety.

But the documents show the Mounties had real concerns in the spring.

Assistant Commissioner Pierre Perron, responsible for the Canadian Firearms Centre, was at the March meeting and warned extending the duration of licenses to 10 years “would limit” the RCMP’s “ability to monitor, on a timely basis, any changes to an individual’s mental health status,” according to a written record of the discussion that Toews’ office prepared. That’s because when a licence is renewed, an individual must answer questions about mental health or changes in personal circumstances that could affect their fitness to own a weapon — and the form must be verified by another person.

The federal Conservative government — which has so far failed to respond to a request by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to put their representative on the advisory committee — has already acted on two of the committee’s other recommendations:

Earlier this fall, Toews eliminated certain gun show regulations the committee called useless, and just last week, cabinet quietly deferred to December 2013 a decision to require gun manufacturers to put new markings on weapons imported to Canada — a move that was intended to allow better tracking and to bring Canada into compliance with a UN effort to control international gun smuggling.

The advisory committee argued “prohibited” firearms is a “repressive and costly classification” to administer, and claimed there would still be adequate safety controls.

“Restricted class has the same safety and security qualifications and requirements as the Prohibited class without the attendant seizure eventuality,” said the committee’s proposal.

The proposed changes are “just chilling,” said Michael Bryant, former Ontario attorney-general who spoke on behalf of the Coalition for Gun Control. “And I think Canadians should be frightened by this.”

“The idea that you could get the equivalent of a lifetime licence to use a gun in Canada is not what the Conservatives ran on in the last election, and that the RCMP is concerned about changes to somebody’s mental health over that period of time is enough to keep the licensing requirements and not water it down.”